Ayodhya

[Guest]

By that definition no country in this world is secular. Not one!

That is not entirely true . Most of the communist countries (before the breakup of the FSU) and a few even today like China, Albania, Vietnam, Cuba follow these precepts fairly faithfully. My point was just as the word secular is very popular with Communist countries, it is not so in the US as it is considered to be synonymous with anti-religious doctrine. Furthermore , Indian communists, unlike their comrades in China who happen to be first and last Chinese patriots and happy to be called jingos, do not follow these precepts. For the Indian communists basically secularism means there is nothing good that can be said about Hinduism (why - for no other reason than that it is the religion of the majority and their unity must be smashed at all costs). My contention is not that many countries follow such a brand of secularism , but that such a meaning for secularism is widely accepted as a secularist concept and that therefore secularism is not widely used as a philosophy or an ideology in America. You can glance at any newspaper and see how many times the word secularism pops up on any given day and compare the same to a english language newspaper in India. In India secularist dogma dominates the debate in english language media and is constantly hurled as a Brahmastra against bewildered Hindus who have always considered themselves pluralistic in their acceptance of other religious beliefs.

I'll tend to go more with the idea of 'Equality.' All men, and women, are created equal. No difference based on religion / color / caste / etc.,

I agree with you that this is an acceptable definition of secularism namely equal treatment of all humans , regardless of religion, caste, creed etc and i would have no problem if this was faithfully applied in India. But that is not the case . There is no question that preferential treatment of minority religions is written into the constitution and under the guise of secularism they have been skimming of temple funds to subsidize the Hajj pilgrimage and subsidizing churches and masjids, all based on the supposition that the Hindu is either gullible or too meek to raise a voice in protest. Thus the secularism that is followed in India adheres to no definition and is an adhoc proposition made up to garner minority votes.



As far as the constitutional bais towards minority religions, a particular odious instance is Article 30. Subhash Kak has this to say about article 30;



[url="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/india/debate4.html"]http://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/shows/in...ia/debate4.html[/url]

Dr. Kak's Response:

The primary strength of the Indian constitution is its affirmation of equality for all citizens. Its primary weakness is its form and size.



It is more than a thousand pages long and perhaps only high court lawyers have seen the entire text. It is a recipe for bureaucratic control of the state. The constitution has a lot of empty verbiage on things like socialism, without defining such terms. It also has the infamous Article 30 that has caused much resentment and may be the underlying cause of religious discord in India. According to its current interpretation by the courts, the state must financially support schools run by minority religious groups but not those by the majority religious groups. It is a marvel that things are quite peaceful in India in spite of this Article 30. Imagine what would happen in the U.S. if the federal and the state governments gave funds to Islamic schools and not to Christian schools. I bet there would be bloodbath.

Article 30



[url="http://www.unesco.org/most/rr3indi.htm"]http://www.unesco.org/most/rr3indi.htm[/url]

Article 30 Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions 

(1) All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. 

(1A) In making any law providing for the compulsory acquisition of any property of an educational institution established and administered by a minority, referred to in clause (1), the State shall ensure that the amount fixed by or determined under such law for the acquisition of such property is such as would not restrict or abrogate the right guaranteed under that clause. 

(2) The State shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language.

Note that if you are defined to be part of the majority religion, you have no such explicitly stated rights.



QED - Secularism in India does not adhere to the egalitarian principle that all religions should be treated equally.